It’s with some dismay that we read that women in this country earn on average 12 per cent less that their male counterparts. And now, over three decades since legislation designed to remedy the un-equal pay, the unit set up to address the problem has been scrapped.

This country has built a reputation for fairness. New Zealand led the world in giving women the vote, enshrining the 40 -hour working week and protecting the community’s safety with ACC. So why has the push for pay parity fallen off the menu?

We hear it is because we have no successful role models to aspire to. This claim wears a bit thin when we’ve had near 30 years of the ‘girls can do anything message’, a woman Prime Minister, Governor General and Chief Justice to boot.

Mai Chen is actively addressing the ‘no role models’ claim by heading the New Zealand Global Women group. This fine collection of power women is in serious catch up mode if they want to inspire a fresh crop of lady-leaders because the situation is actually getting worse.

In 2004 New Zealand was ranked 4th in female representation in business management, now we have dropped to 10th place.  Fran O’Sullivan in the NZ Herald points out that just 54 out of 624 director positions on NZX companies are held by women.

Invisible glass ceilings have been blamed for keeping women down, sticky floors too, and that women bully each other, or are too cooperative and empathetic to truly succeed. We hear that men are genetically privileged so especially tall ones get the top jobs, that they are bred to lead. Women who take time out of their careers to have children can blame biology for losing their place in the promotion queue.

Surely the communication message is quite simple: an equal day’s work deserves an equal days pay no matter how you put your trousers on in the morning. Alternatively as one leading business woman suggested more than a decade ago, if women’s pay can’t go up, perhaps men’s pay should come down!

Tags: ACC, Fran O'Sullivan, NZ Global Women group, NZ Herald, pay parity

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